Legal experts mostly agree that what the detectives did was legal, but they question whether it was appropriate.

Charles Rose, a professor at Stetson University College of Law, told the Tampa Bay Times dead people cannot assert fourth amendment protections – securing “their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures” – because you cannot own property when you’re dead.

But those rights could apply to whoever inherits the property, he said.